history

17 July 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the murder of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family in a cellar in Ekaterinburg in the Urals. This centenary provides an opportunity to review the circumstances which led to the Tsar’s tragic end and to reflect on the importance of the event for the course […]

I was not surprised when I finished reading ‘Why Closing the Word Gap Matters: Oxford Language Report’ , but it still made for sombre reading. The report put in black and white what teachers already know: Most of the students we teach don’t have the vocabulary they need to fulfil their full potential at school. The word gap affects students’ wider life chances. After […]

Not all teachers can say that they went to school on the last Monday before half term with a spring in their step. I, however, did exactly that. It was the first day back after ‘The Big Day’… not the Royal Wedding nor not the FA Cup Final, but the Historical Association Conference 2018. I […]

As History teachers, we are just about to embark on ‘exam madness’ season. We have precious little time left with our exam classes. We will be prepping and delivering extra revision sessions on top of completing all of the other tasks that are part and parcel of our profession. So it is no surprise that […]

The release of Kathryn Bigelow’s movie Detroit in August 2017, which tells the story of major race riots in 1967 in USA, has recently re-awakened my own memories of the turmoil of the struggle for American civil rights which I was privileged to observe at first hand. I lived in the United States for a […]

History, it often seems to me, isn’t essentially about the past. In so many ways, it’s about the present and the future – the afterlife in records, interpretation, and impact on thought. In current news, I’m struck by what lives on from bygone days in three seemingly unlike examples: a controversial law (Poland), yet another […]

This month marks one-hundred years since The Representation of the Peoples Act was passed which, for the first time, gave some women the right to vote. To celebrate we have created this interactive timeline which shows some of the key dates and events which contributed to women gaining the right to vote in Britain. Taken […]

In the AQA GCSE History specification, the Historic Environment element is integrated with the British Depth Study. This means that as students develop an in-depth knowledge of a British period, their understanding of that period would in turn help them to understand the historic site. It is useful to approach the study of a historic […]

Teachers are telling us they are most concerned about getting to grips with KS3 Assessment in light of the new GCSE specifications, so you might like to watch Aaron Wilkes and Steve Day’s expert webinar on KS3 Assessment. In the webinar, Aaron and Steve share best practice about KS3 History assessment, and discuss what OUP’s […]

The Reformation is of great significance in British and European history and is a topic that students will likely come across multiple times during their study of History. This year marks 500 years since the start of the Reformation with the publication of Martin Luther’s ‘95 Theses’ in 1517. Martin Luther’s attack on the Church […]